WASHINGTON – Former President Gerald Ford was the most laughed-at chief executive in American history, with everyone from Chevy Chase and Bob Hope to “The Simpsons” jumping in with a joke – and Ford chuckled along.

The self-deprecating ex-president, mocked for his slips on the ski slopes and stumbles down Air Force One’s stairs, quipped that he was “the Evel Knievel of politics.”

“Saturday Night Live” star Chevy Chase built his career parodying the perception of Ford as a klutz.

In one famous skit Chase, playing Ford, stood behind a podium and declared, “If I don’t win, I will continue to run in the primaries – even if there are none.” He then stepped left and stumbled over a row of folding chairs.

No one ribbed him more than close pal Bob Hope, who joked about Ford’s golf game after he once hit a spectator with an errant shot.

“It’s not hard to find Jerry Ford on a golf course – you just follow the wounded,” was one Hope quip.

Another: “Whenever I play with him, I usually try to make it a foursome – the president, myself, a paramedic and a faith healer. ”

Former President Lyndon B. Johnson wasn’t nearly as playful in his quips, insisting Ford “can’t walk and chew gum at the same time” and that “he used to play football without a helmet.”

Ford liked that line so much, he incorporated it into many of his speeches.

Chase yesterday recalled Ford as “just a terrific guy.”

“Later on we became friends and he was a very, very sweet man,” Chase told Reuters.

In 1996, Fox’s “The Simpsons” had a character in Ford’s likeness invite Homer Simpson to watch a football game, only to have them both stumble over the curb – D’oh!